Matthew's Birth

I was due on November 21, 1998 with my first child. I was overdue. On November 30, I was scheduled for a non-stress test at 9 am at the hospital. I arrived promptly with the antisipation of being tested and being sent home to wait for the labor to begin. They put the monitors on me and began the test. I had been feeling slight contractions for a couple of weeks and because they weren't in any pattern I chalked it up to Braxton Hicks. The nurse said that the contractions were coming at 7 to 10 minutes apart. They checked my cervix and I wasn't dilated at all. After an hour and a half of being monitored, they sent me to have a light lunch and to walk around for an hour. I returned, and began being monitored again. Same thing was happening. 7 to 10 minutes but no dilation. They decided to put me in a room and continue monitoring me. They put an IV in my wrist and began putting some fluid in me, which I fail to remember exactly what it was because of all the "fun" things that were happening. They said my contractions were real not braxton hicks. The doctor ordered an ultrasound of the baby also which is part of the non-stress testing they decided to do for me. Around 4pm I was wheeled down to have the u/s. The baby passed with flying colors. Was estimated to be over 8 lbs. Back to the room for me with more monitoring. By 7pm, I was told that I could finally eat something and that it didn't look like I would be delivering anytime soon. They also said I would be staying the night and continuously monitored. Not a fun way to sleep with the monitor belt and IV attached to you. By morning, the 1st of December I was still having slight contractions but they were 5 to 7 minutes now. I still hadn't been admitted and was only an outpatient. I continued to wait for word from the doctor, only to find out I had to wait longer due to 3 emergency cesareans taking place at almost the same time. By 12 noon, I still had no dilation and the doctor said I could either go home and just wait which could be up to another week or to begin inducing. I chose inducing; afterall, I had already been there for over 24 hours already. I finally was admitted to the hospital as a patient. At 2:15 pm they started the pitocin drip in my IV. Within the hour I began starting to feel the contractions. I continued with the 5 minute contractions for a couple of hours, so they upped my dose of pitocin. The contractions were coming anywhere from 2 minutes up to 5 minutes. By 6 pm, still not dilated. Again they upped the pitocin. Within the hour the contractions began getting really hard. I was sitting in the chair and suddenly began shaking uncontrollably. I started having a severe pain in my lower back. The shaking went on for about an hour. By 8 pm, I still hadn't dilated any. The contractions were quite hard and still only 2 to 5 minutes apart. The nurses said the baby was getting tired and kept getting me to change positions so it would wake the baby. They put an oxygen mask on me so the baby would get more oxygen too. Around midnight, on the 2nd of December, my water finally broke, but only trickled. By this time the pain had gotten so bad that the breathing I had learned in Lamaze was no longer working for me. I finally asked for something for the pain. The nurse gave me Staydol in my IV. Within a minute the pain had subsided enough for me to doze off for about 20 minutes. I was able to nod in and out for about an hour or so, but the medication wore off and the pain became unbearable again. Again the pitocin was increased, and now only a figertips worth of dilation was detected. This hard labor continued all night along with 2 more doses of Staydol. By 11:30 am, they decided to do an internal monioring of the baby. I was still trickeling my fluid and they noticed that there was some meconium in the fluid. When they noticed the baby's heartrate began dropping with every contraction and no luck of me dilating a c-section was planned. So, at 12:15 pm, Dec. 2nd, I was wheeled into the OR for my surgery. I was given a spinal instead of an epidural. I was told that the baby needed to be removed quickly and there was no time to wait 20 minutes for an epidural to take affect. So, the spinal was given and at 12:43pm, my son Matthew Cameron Charles was brought into the world. He had a head full of hair and a lusty cry. Thankfully he had no traces of meconium in his lungs. He scored an 8 and a 9 on his APGAR test. He weighed in at 7lbs 4oz and 20 in. long. After the recovery time, I was moved to my room. I finally got to hold my baby 3 1/2 hours after he was born. After all that time and pain, I finally am a MOM. What a wonderful ending to the story.